Shadow of death cast over Easter
Christians and tourists targeted in Sri Lankan bomb attacks British mother and son among 200 killed by terrorists
KEY intelligence on a possible terrorist attack was not passed on to the Sri Lankan government, days before at least 207 people were killed in the Easter Sunday suicide bombings that targeted Christians at worship and tourists at five-star hotels.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Sri Lankan prime minister, acknowledged late last night that “information was there” about possible attacks and blamed religious extremism for the wave of bombings that also injured more than 450.
He added that “we must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken”, as it was reported that information about potential suicide attacks had been passed by “foreign intelligence” to the Sri Lankan security agencies 10 days earlier.
The worst of the carnage was caused by six coordinated bombs that ripped through three churches across the country, all packed with Easter congregations, and three hotels popular with tourists in Colombo, the capital.
Members of a British family were killed eating breakfast at the Shangrila hotel. Alex Nicholson, 11, and his mother, Anita, 42, were killed while the father, Ben, survived. The Daily Telegraph was unable to account for the whereabouts of the couple’s daughter.
Hours later, as panic spread across the country, two further blasts occurred at a smaller Colombo hotel and in a residential area during a security operation. Thirteen people have been arrested after the worst violence on the South Asian island since the end of its decades-long civil war in 2009.
Pope Francis led international condemnation of the attacks during his Easter Sunday address. “I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence,” he said. Mr Wickremesinghe said the suspects’ names had been “local” but investigators were looking into whether the attackers had any “overseas links”. It was reported that foreign intelligence agencies had passed on information to Sri Lankan officials about an Islamist group called the National Thoweed Jamath allegedly planning attacks on Catholic churches and the Indian high commission.
An explosive device was later found near Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport and destroyed.
Harrowing images emerged from the aftermath of the attacks on St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, the Zion Church in the eastern city of Batticaloa, and St Sebastian’s in Negombo, north of the capital.
There were similar scenes in the Shangri-la, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand hotels, where guests were targeted as they sat down to eat breakfast.
At the Cinnamon Grand, a hotel manager said the attacker waited in a queue for the buffet before setting off explosives strapped to his back. The man had checked in the night before.
Most of several dozen foreign victims were believed to have been killed at the hotels, including three British dead and two UK-US dual nationals, plus Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, Indian and Turkish visitors.
The Sri Lankan foreign ministry said 25 people, believed to be foreigners, had not been identified and 19 foreign nationals had been taken to hospitals.
James Dauris, Britain’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, confirmed British citizens were caught up in the blast.
“I’ve been speaking with Britons in hospital who have been affected by today’s senseless attacks,” he said.
The Sri Lankan government ordered a social media blackout, but it also hampered efforts by friends and family to make contact with loved ones.
AS GUESTS at Colombo’s Cinnamon Grand waited in line for the breakfast buffet on a quiet Easter Sunday, they could have had no idea one of their fellow diners was about to unleash a wave of horror.
The man, who had checked in the previous night under an apparent false name, held a plate and was just about to be served before he detonated explosives strapped to his body.
“There was utter chaos,” the hotel manager said. “It was busy. It was families,” he said. “He came up to the top of the queue and set off the blast. One of our managers who was welcoming guests was among those killed instantly.”
Meanwhile, the early morning celebrations of Easter worshippers were shattered by simultaneous attacks on three churches across Sri Lanka.
The first ripped through the packed pews of St Sebastian’s church in Negombo, a city about 20 miles north of the capital, destroying the altar and religious icons and blowing off the roof.
In the blast’s aftermath, dozens of dazed survivors scrambled through rubble and broken tiles, some reaching towards the bloodied bodies to help, while others stared in a state of confusion at the shrapnel-damaged walls.
Photographs of the devastating scenes were quickly posted to the church’s Facebook page with a gutwrenching plea: “A bomb attack at our church pleas [sic] come and help if your family are there,” it said.
Worshippers at St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo and Zion Church in the eastern city of Batticaloa were about to face a similar brutal fate.
At St Anthony’s, multiple people died and at least 160 were injured. “It was a river of blood,” said NA Sumanapala, a shopkeeper near the church, who said he had run inside to help. “The priest came out and he was covered in blood.” Two more hotels in the capital, the Shangri-la and the Kingsbury, were also on the attackers’ hit list, in an apparent attempt to also draw foreigners into their crosshairs.
In a statement, the Shangri-la said it was “deeply saddened and shocked” to confirm that an explosion rocked its Table One café at 9.05am.
A tourist said she was eating breakfast at the hotel’s second floor restaurant when two blasts struck 10 seconds apart. “There was just screaming and everywhere I looked there was blood,” she said, adding that the area had been full of visitors, including children.
“Everyone was just hiding trying to work out what had just happened and what was going to happen and we just didn’t know.”
Shantha Mayadunne, a Sri Lankan television chef, and her London-based daughter Nisanga were among the first victims named. Nisanga had posted a selfie of their family online in the Shangri-la minutes before the blast, saying: “Easter breakfast with my family.” The majority of the dead were Sri Lankan, but several nationalities were among the victims, a reflection of the South Asian island nation’s growing popularity as a tourist destination. At least one person was killed in the Cinnamon Grand, near the prime minister’s official residence.
Upstairs, Julian Emmanuel and his family, from Surrey, were woken by the bomb. “We were in our room and heard a large explosion,” he told the BBC.
“We were told there had been a bomb. Staff said some people were killed. One member of staff told me it was a suicide bomber,” he added.
Across the island, panic set in and churches halted or cancelled Easter services. Foreigners were told by their embassies to shelter in place. As the death toll rose above 200, including at least 27 foreigners, the island was placed in lockdown.
James Dauris, Britain’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, urged British citizens on the island to inform their families if they were safe. Amid height70,000-80,000 ened public nervousness, the government shut down access to social media networks to prevent misinformation.
However, the temporary calm was broken by two afternoon blasts in a hotel in the southern Colombo suburb of Dehiwala and in a home in the northern suburb of Orugodawatta, as police closed in on the terrorists behind the attacks. Three officers were killed during the arrest of seven suspects.
A 12-hour curfew came into force as night drew in.
The bloodshed was a traumatic turn after a decade of peace since the end of a civil war with Tamils, during which people were killed. While the targeting of Christians and foreigners bore the hallmarks of Islamist groups, Islamic extremism is virtually unknown on the majority-buddhist island of 22 million, where Muslims have faced recent persecution.
Security analysts speculated that Sri Lanka could have been seen as a soft target. Ten days earlier, Pujuth Jayasundara, Sri Lanka’s police chief, made a nationwide alert that suicide bombers planned to hit “prominent churches”, reported AFP.
The warning predicted that attacks would be carried out by the National Thowheeth Jama’ath, a radical Muslim group that emerged in 2018 when it was linked to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues.
As the nation struggled for answers, Mangala Samaraweera, the finance minister, said: “The bombings are not the doings of a fanatical individual. It’s obviously a highly coordinated attempt to create murder, mayhem and anarchy.”